56 thoughts on “March 17, 2021: Shut Up Kiss Me I’m Irish Hold Me Tight”

    1. looks like you still must meet the state guidelines for occupation, age, preexisting conditions

      2. Wisconsin is opening it up on Monday to immunocompromised people and some various other conditions, including overweight people. Fortunately, my metabolism has slowed down enough that I qualify by BMI! So I'm going to be up early Monday to try to get an appointment set.

        1. I saw that Wisconsin's BMI cutoff is 25 and Minnesota's is 40. Seems like a big difference.

          1. I saw that Wisconsin's BMI cutoff is 25

            Doesn't that mean all of Wisconsin qualifies for a shot?

              1. He ain't wrong. Also, I can get one in Wisconsin but wouldn't be able to in Minnesota, so there is that. My in very good shape friend will be getting one as well.

                1. Man, BMI is such a poor metric. I had a BMI of 25.8 when I was in peak condition, and was able to run a sub-19 minute 5k and do 25+ pull-ups/100+ crunches in 2 minutes.

                  1. Same here. I was at 29.2 when I was in my peak physical condition. Although that said, I have struggled a bit with weight the last few years, although its been slowly trending in the right direction. Now I just need to get that bike frame painted and get out on the roads.

    2. On the one hand, I'm happy to be a 34 year old in pretty good health (especially considering I don't exercise nearly as much as I should), and I truly believe that and the fact I'm WFH for the foreseeable future still means I should not be in line yet. There are plenty of people in more need than I am.

      On the other, waiting is so dang hard.

      1. Working from home and not being in any high-risk groups myself, I was very conflicted about getting mine, even though the VA had opened up to all vets regardless of age & circumstance. The VA’s vaccines are from the federal pool, though, which made me feel less like I was depriving someone in greater need in-state. The good progress the state has made here to roll them out to folks prodded me to trust the systems in place to allocate the doses correctly and go ahead and take the opportunity to do my part.

        I know things are varying state-to-state, so your circumstances will be different. But when your opportunity comes, I hope you can trust the system that has deemed you eligible and proceed without regret.

        1. For sure, I generally trust the rollout process. I'm relatively really low risk, I'm at the end of the line and to me that's fair.

          By the time they get to me, I trust that everyone who needed one more than me had ample opportunity. I'll be waiting at midnight to book my spot

          1. I also recommend getting one as soon as you can, though. At this point, the best thing to do is to just get as many people shots as possible regardless of health.

        2. I felt that way initially but it sounds like everyone that wants one will get one in the next couple months, so I think the most efficient way is to take it if offered at this point.

      1. Despite never watching college basketball ever and having no money on the line and doing only 3 minutes of research, I still get angst filling out these brackets.

        1. I still remember the first time I ever entered a tournament. It was run by a pair of trumpet-playing policy debaters that we happened to know. I had no clue at the time (still don't, really), and picked teams by gut feel as filling out the bracket. I won that year, and have loved it ever since.

  4. The VA opened up vaccinations to all enrolled veterans, so I got my first one (Modena) yesterday. The guy who scheduled me told me I missed the Johnson & Johnson shot — they already ran out — and I thought, “I don’t mind a second shot if it’s even moderately more effective.”

    Then, while cutting planks of sweet potato for supper last night, I ran my cleaver through my thumb. The potato just splintered and pivoted my blade the wrong way. The cut was fairly deep and circles from nail to the middle of the pad. Off to urgent care for stitches — the first I’ve ever needed for a kitchen mishap.

    Since I’m 7.5 years out from a tetanus booster, there was a bit of conversation about whether to administer another. It was ultimately my call, but they said given the clean blade and kitchen environment, skipping it should be okay. I’m not compromising the vaccination if I can help it.

    1. Is that a thing? Vaccines compete for immune response attention? Or am I missing your point?
      Edit: I guess so. It's right there on the VA info page: "Note: You’ll need to wait at least 14 days between getting a COVID-19 vaccine and any other vaccine."

      1. Yep, they asked me when I scheduled, and again when I presented at the hospital for the COVID vaccine, if I’d been vaccinated in the last two weeks. I figured the urgent care folks might want to stick me the a Tdap needle, since I couldn’t remember the last time I got a booster. I was relieved when they said it was 2013. I did some speed googling while I was soaking the wound in antiseptic and found that the CDC says a tetanus shot for wound treatment is permissible, but given the situation, it seemed like the risk of compromising the COVID vaccine was greater than getting tetanus from a clean cleaver in my home kitchen.

        1. I didn't realize how long tetanus shots lasted. Last year when I got stuck with a rusty nail, I called the clinic for a shot. They said "Just a second" looked up my records and told me "You got one last year. They're good for 10 years."

          "....oh...so not like flu shots?"

          "Nope"

          "Ok, thanks, guess I don't need one then"

          I for sure thought I needed them yearly.

    2. The cut was fairly deep and circles from nail to the middle of the pad

      I took off a big chunk of my thumb slicing a sweet potato about 3 years ago. I had just sharpened my chefs knife, and who boy was it sharp. I cut through the nail as well. I cleaned it out really well, and then dunked it in ice water til the bleeding slowed and then poured new skin on the wound. I'm pretty sure the new skin hurt more than the actual slicing off bit. Stitches wouldn't have helped. I'm just now getting feeling back in that part of my thumb. Not long after that I lap lacerated my left pointer finger with the most dangerous tool on the job site - the good old fashioned utility knife - and should have gotten stitches but just super glued it back together instead. I'm going to go to the urgent scare next time.

  5. My 16-year-old and I were on a call list at a local pharmacy and we were able to get the vaccine yesterday. These lists are for when a pharmacy has vaccine that is going to expire (get thrown away). These lists are long because people from around the state have called numerous pharmacies to get on these lists. The local pharmacist called many people before us, but they all either didn’t answer or were not able to get there quickly. Fortunately since we live so close we could _actually_ get there in time to get the shot.

    So if you haven’t gotten the shot, I would recommend calling a couple of your nearby pharmacies and getting on a similar list if they have one.

    1. Related, I'm considering sending this additional note to a couple family text threads because I know there are 3-4 people on those threads that are on the fence about getting the vaccine. Too harsh?

      I’m thankful for the nurses and pharmacists who are distributing this shot. I’m thankful for the systems, government and otherwise, that are getting it out into our communities at a faster and faster rate every day.

      I’m thankful for the 100s of years of scientific progress that led to this point. If this pandemic happened even 25 years ago, we would be left in the wilderness for many, many more years. I’m thankful for the scientists who have spent decades of their lives being educated, learning, and discovering. I’m thankful that they keep discovering ways to combat viruses such as this all in the face of a concerted and maddening effort to discredit their work. I hope the opinions of talking heads with no scientific background do not damage our ability to recruit future scientists into the field or our ability to combat the next potential pandemic in the future.

      I’m glad to have done my little part to protect those around me. Stopping this as a deadly and constant disease will take billions of others standing up to do the same.

      1. If this pandemic happened even 25 years ago, we would be left in the wilderness for many, many more years.

        And possibly even more recently. Pfizer/BioNTech and the Moderna are the first mRNA vaccines approved for people ever. Moderna, or ModeRNA then, was founded for this very reason only in 2010.

    2. These lists are for when a pharmacy has vaccine that is going to expire (get thrown away). These lists are long because people from around the state have called numerous pharmacies to get on these lists. The local pharmacist called many people before us, but they all either didn’t answer or were not able to get there quickly. Fortunately since we live so close we could _actually_ get there in time to get the shot.

      This is so...sensible. Are we talking about the same country?

        1. Heh, the topic of baseball cards came up yesterday in the discord I'm in and it prompted me to look through my collection of late 80's/early 90's cards and lol, they are worth basically nothing. I should ask Hrbek to sign some and make at least some money on em.

                1. You could auto-pen dozens!!!111one111!!!

                  that, uh, may or may not be my actual signature....

  7. Signs of spring. We have a pair of Sandhill Cranes that have been hanging out in the neighborhood the last couple years. They just buzzed the tower here at the house. Fun to see them back.

    1. The arrival of the cranes always makes me think of this beautiful masterpiece, which opens & closes with images of them.

      One of my very favorite films.

    2. I was playing with the dog in the front yard a few days ago and heard some honking overhead. I looked up expecting geese but instead there were 4 big swans flying over us. I see them on one of the little lakes at Elm Creek Park during the summer and I think they may nest there. But they are impressive fliers, with their long necks they look sort of like a Klingon battle cruiser.

  9. I harvested my first crop of blue oyster mushrooms just now and sautéed a few in butter and a splash of beer. Oh mama.

    2. I could easily see those mushrooms in a ramen/pho made with bone broth, carrot, basil, egg, chicken/tofu, scallion, and lime for garnish.

  10. Just got off a call where one of my buddies related a story where some researches in Spain were seeing a significant different of COVID infant deaths compared to other countries and couldn't explain it.

    Later, a data analyst discovered that they were using a two-digit field for storing the person's age - so someone who died at 101 would show up as dying at 01.

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